Tuesday, March 9, 2010

FLIPPING BETWEEN RAW AND IMPACT: 03/08/10

This will likely be the new format for any Monday night wrestling review. Me and my pal Steve (hi steve) decided that the best course of action was this:

9:00 - Impact

9:15 - RAW

REST OF NIGHT - Flip between the two with a Justin TV stream on the go, letting us know what's going on during Impact.

In Canada we get RAW at a 15-minute time delay, so Impact will always get a lead-in with us. After that, it's fair game.

Now here's the problem, which will be fixed the next time this nerdy showdown of watching wrestling on a TV and a laptop simultaneously goes down. I don't remember exactly when we flipped back and forth, so the night ended with me wondering if Sting was with Batista or not. So the segment comparisons below might not be 100% accurate.

The best part about this whole deal to me isn't really about which show was better than the other, but more about piecing one good show together out of the two.

Here is how the competition shaped up for us, essentially (in terms of what we chose to watch instead of what):

MINDFREAK & THE JOHN CENA GAUNTLET VS. HOGAN & FLAIR GETTING JUICE THREE TIMES BETWEEN THEM (IN 2010)

THE BREAKDOWN

TNA Main Event tease def. Score RAW Preview RAW

TNA X-Division 3-Way def. Taker/HBK, Divas Tag RAW

RAW Criss Angel's eyeball def. Dixie Carter TNA

RAW Miz talkin' DREW Knockouts/Pope & Desmond TNA

RAW ShoMiz vs. Mo'Truth def. Commercials? TNA

TNA Sting/RVD def. Some tricks--sorry ILLUSIONS RAW

RAW Legacy Handicap Match def. The Banned (ha?) TNA

RAW Batista interview def. Young/Pac denim match TNA

TNA Army Lumberjack promo DREW HHH/Sheamus RAW

RAW Criss Angel squashing paper cups def. Tenay/Taz TNA

RAW Bourne/Regal def. Jarrett/Foley/Beer Money TNA

TNA No DQ Main Event def. Vince McMahon RAW

RAW Feats of Strength with John Cena def. Nothing TNA

And here are my favourite moments of the entire night...

GREATEST MOMENTS FROM MONDAY NIGHT

- Taz calling Hulk Hogan "Help Hogan"

- Evan Bourne filling the last MITB spot

- The X-Division Three-Way

- Shannon Moore getting a Title shot by applying the foolproof TNA strategy of staying off TV for months

- Jeff Hardy cleans house and let's us use our ImagInation for the Swanton Bomb!

- The absolute INSANITY I felt enter my mind as I watched the TNA main event. Just a hilariously scary thing to watch. Ric Flair looked like someone from my nightmares.

- Taker/HBK announced as NO DQ: Take bets now on how scary the Shawn Michaels table spot will be. I bet it will be at least an 11 on the DBMM.

- Jeremy Borash dumping champagne down Lacey Von Erich's cleavage.

- The pop for RVD.

- The endless beatdown of RVD.

- Dis N Dat point at a sign.

- Generation ME/MCMG announced for Destination X as an Ultimate X match. That match will almost certainly look like CGI it will be so goddamned crazy.

- Vince McMahon inventing rules for matches that have never existed before anyway.

- Batista's "all eyes on me" spotlight-cueing thumbs.

If this can just keep happening every week where I get thoroughly entertained by two wrestling shows, by flipping between the two... I will be greatly pleased.

And it appears that next week will be even crazier, somehow. RAW will have Michaels/Jericho, Show/Cena and HHH/Orton with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the host, who will likely monitor the Bret/Vince contract signing.

While TNA is boasting an insane tag team match pitting Jeff Hardy & Rob Van Dam against AJ Styles & Desmond Wolfe. That, plus Generation Me wrestling, according to Matt Jackson on Twitter, should make for some tough channel flipping.

It's WAY more exciting watching both at the same time/flipping channels than it is DVRing one and watching both one after the other. You just get so worn out by the end of it all. But two shows at once makes for a wild evening that makes you feel like you've been drinkin' and druggin' with reckless abandon.